Tag Archives: university of Denver

You never know what will happen at holiday parties, do you? In my case, it was a rather tame – but titillating, all the same – invitation to speak as a part of the University of Denver’s Writers@Work writing series. So last week, I was pleased to finally join the series and address around 15 students and a handful of professors on the topic of writing in product marketing.

I began with my own journey as a writer and explained what product marketers do, why the Denver tech scene is so damned hot, and what are the types of B2B writing you produce for sales, product, and marketing teams. I presented as many examples as I could reasonably fit into an hour, including a real lead gen campaign with ads, emails, eBooks, and sales scripts.

Before answering a few follow-up questions, I finished with practical advice for the would-be career writers. Here are the five tips I gave them to remember (when all else that I said was forgotten):

1. Writing is your Superpower

I explained that, of the roughly 285,000 individuals working in technology in the Denver metro area, probably less than a tenth of those were reasonably decent writers. “You have a gift,” I told the students. “Know that the ability to write in clear, concise and persuasive prose is in high demand in the tech industry.” World-changing technology means nothing if you cannot coherently write about how it will change the world.

2. Always know your audience

I had already spent time explaining the importance of buyer personas, and I reiterated that you must write content with the audience in mind. If you do not understand the needs, motivations and pains of your prospective customer, you cannot be an effective product marketer. As scary as it sounds, talk to customers, and whenever in doubt, return to them and ask what they think. True Voice of Customer will always trump your intuition.

3. Go deep, but don’t get lost

I estimate it takes a fairly smart marketer between 6 to 12 months to internalize their employer’s products, markets and messaging. By this I mean that you are creating authentic and compelling content and are no longer just parroting back what you’ve been taught by co-workers. I urged the students to stay long enough to reap the rewards of this internalization, rather than hop along to the next job every 8 to 10 months. I also warned of getting lost in senseless business drivel like “leverage” (always a noun, never a verb) and “scalability,” which come off as fakery and are a second-rate writer’s crutch.

4. Editing is your Secret Weapon

Just as important as writing in marketing is the ability to edit your colleagues’ work. I asked that the students consider taking a basic editing course, which hardly anyone offers these days. Learning to edit for grammar and meaning not only makes for more impactful content, it helps to reinforce the voice and style of the company’s brand. AND it definitely makes you a stronger writer. Behind the best writers in the world are the editors that help them perfect their art.

5. Build your tech toolset

Lastly, I reminded the students to invest time in learning the tools of the trade: Word, PowerPoint, InDesign, Photoshop, and basic HTML. In B2B product marketing, an early mastery of this toolset means that you can spend most of your time crafting the message instead of struggling with the technology you use to promote it. As with #4 above, you increase your value when your skills make everyone else in the company seem to write as well as you do.